The Dark Engine of Prosperity: Slavery in Kings County

• 2,017People counted across the Six Towns in the 1698 census, about one-third enslaved
• 43.6%Enslaved share of Kings County in 1790 (county average)
• 58.6%Enslaved share in Flatbush in 1790
• 1827Absolute legal abolition took effect

The sweeping, fertile outwash plains of Flatlands, Flatbush, and New Utrecht established Brooklyn as a premier agricultural producer, often acting as the "breadbasket" that fed the rapidly expanding metropolis of Manhattan. However, this vast agricultural output was not the product of yeoman farming; it was entirely dependent on the brutal, systemic exploitation of enslaved African labor. Because the agricultural operations covered thousands of acres, the labor shortage was acute. White indentured servants were scarce, prompting Dutch farmers and their English successors to aggressively import captive Africans.^10,36,38

By the late seventeenth century, slavery was deeply entrenched in the socioeconomic fabric of Kings County, fundamentally distinguishing its demographic profile from the rest of the northern colonies. The first comprehensive census of Kings County, taken in 1698, revealed the shocking density of the enslaved population. The census counted a total population of 2,017 people across the Six Towns, of which approximately one-third were enslaved Africans. In specific towns, the concentration was even more pronounced. In Flatlands, 15% of the population was enslaved in 1698; in Bushwick, a census recorded 325 "souls," with 42 black males and 36 black females, indicating that 21 of the 51 households relied on enslaved labor.^36,40,37

Unlike the urban slavery practiced in Manhattan, which often involved domestic servitude, slavery in Kings County was grueling, large-scale agricultural bondage. The daily life of enslaved individuals was strictly regulated by the 1702 "Act for Regulating Slaves" and subsequent punitive slave codes. Prominent local families, including the Lotts, Wyckoffs, and Schencks, accumulated massive generational wealth derived directly from human chattel. For instance, upon his death in 1775, Johannes E. Lott of Flatlands passed his vast estate, along with twelve enslaved individuals, to his son Hendrick.^10,39,37,18

By 1790, enslaved Africans constituted over 30% to 43.6% of the entire population of Kings County—the absolute highest percentage of any county in New York State. Even as the State of New York passed the Gradual Emancipation Act in 1799—which dictated that children born to enslaved mothers after July 4, 1799, would eventually be freed in 1827—Kings County farmers fiercely resisted abolition. While industrializing areas saw rapid declines in slave ownership (falling by 57% between 1800 and 1820), the agricultural strongholds of Flatlands and Flatbush clung to the institution, seeing a drop of only 19%, maintaining significant enslaved populations until the absolute legal abolition took effect in 1827.^36,10